


ADDRESS 



BY HON. S. S. HAYES, 



ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT 



UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, IND, 



JUNE 34th, 1874. 



CHICAGO: 

J. S. Thompson & Co., Printers, 168 and 160 S. Clark St. 

1874. 



ADDRESS 

• 

BY HON. S. S. HAYES 




ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT 



UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, IND., 



•TUNE 24th. 1874. 






CHICAGO: 

J. S. Thompson & Co., Printers, lf>8 and 160 S. Clark St. 
1874. 



ADDRESS OF 

S. S. HAYES AT THE ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT OF 

THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, 

JUNE 24th, 1874. 



Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen : 

When I accepted the invitation to make some remarks on this 
occasion I did not understand that I would be set down on the 
programme for an oration. 

A composition so elaborate, so perfect in style and design, so 
rich with the graces of rhetoric as to be worthy to* be called an 
oration, I have neither the leisure nor the ability to produce. Even 
if qualified to make the attempt, I should hesitate, in the presence 
of this assembly, these learned professors, and these young gentle- 
men, fresh from the classics and familiar with the best models of 
ancient and modern times. 

With your permission I shall only offer a few practical observa- 
tions to that portion of my audience who, having spent some happy 
years amidst these pleasant scenes in the education of their faculties 
and the acquisition of knowledge, under the guidance of these 
eminent and skillful teachers, are about to enter upon a new phase 
of life, with which at present they are but little acquainted. 

If I can aid them to start aright upon this voyage, to provide 
themselves with the means of self-preservation, to weather the storms 



which will beset them, and to follow a course which will lead them 
to true prosperity and happiness, I shall deem myself fortunate. 

The wise man who undertakes anything new, begins by a careful 
survey of the situation. He decides first that the object is right 
and of sufficient importance ; second, that it is capable of accom- 
plishment by him. He examines himself, the obstacles in his way, 
and the means at his command. Having learned fully the require- 
ments of the case, he proceeds with courage and industry until his 
exertions are rewarded with success. If perchance he has erred in 
his calculations, or, from any cause, is defeated, he bears his dis- 
appointment with patience and turns with the same courage and 
industry to the next duty or enterprise which may present itself 
before him. 

This is the robust habit of mind which belongs to all who attain 
eminence in any of the walks of life or accomplish great results of 
any kind. It is a combination of foresight, courage, industry and 
patience. If you do not already possess it, you should never rest 
satisfied until you have attained it. 

It is of equal importance to avoid in early life entanglements of 
every kind. These may arise from unworthy companionships, bad 
associations, sensual and selfish indulgences, indolent or extravagant 
habits, and false views of our situation, of the ends of our existence 
and the proper objects of ambition. 

Because we have found healthful amusement in athletic exercises 
it does not follow that our associates should be chosen from those 
who follow such exercises for a livelihood, or that we should seek 
them at the billiard saloon, the race course, the base ball club, or 
the circus. 

Evil communications, vulgar and indecent language, the vices 
of sensualism, and all acts prompted by the baser passions of our 
nature will be shunned by every young man who respects himself 
or desires the respect of others. Better still for him if in addition 



he has erected for himself a high standard of excellence, if he 
has acquired a taste for the pure, the beautiful and the good ; if he 
has learned to love and practice virtue for its own sake. 

I would also impress upon him the value of habits of self-con- 
trol and self-denial, which indeed are included in the practice of 
virtue. If perfectly able to deny himself every gratification, every 
object of his wishes which his judgment or his conscience disap- 
proves, he is master of himself, and prepared for that measure of 
success to which his other qualities may entitle him. 

Let us suppose now that the young graduate is prepared to start 
in the world with a good education, a good reputation, and the 
qualifications and purposes I have just described. The first ques- 
tion which he has to meet, is the choice of a vocation. To solve 
this question properly, he must begin with a just idea of the require- 
ments of his situation in life, and of his obligations to those who have 
nurtured and educated him. 

It is often objected to the indiscriminate education of all classes 
that tastes and desires are created, which are incompatible with 
the circumstances in which the majority are placed. I do not 
think this effect is often produced in minds of a superior order. 
The grand brotherhood of genius and learning is a true democracy. 
It is made up from all ranks and conditions. Its patents of nobility 
come from God, before whom the beggar and the king are equal. 
Its members care little for artificial distinctions, for the trifles wor- 
shipped by the frivolous and weak. Their companionship is with 
great facts, and principles, and ideas. To labor and to endure is 
their pleasure. A lower order of minds may obtain from a college 
course but a smattering of knowledge and a few external accomplish- 
ments, with a distaste for physical labor. With even these it is 
probable that in most cases experience and necessity prove efficient 
correctives. 

However, it is true that much disappointment and unhappiness 
result from mistakes made in the choice of a vocation, arising 



6 

mostly from the foolish notion that the educated man should not 
support himself by manual labor. If this notion should prevail, 
when education becomes universal, manual labor and production 
will cease, the means of subsistence will fail, and the earth become 
depopulated. Erroneous as it is, and kept in check by the common 
sense of the community, it has caused the professions and the lighter 
employments to be overcrowded, in defiance of the law of supply 
and demand, and to the lasting sorrow of thousands of our promising 
youth, who might be profitably employed in the different trades 
and agriculture. 

I wish I could impress it on the minds of all our young men. 
that the capacity to perform manual labor is the first step towards 
independence. Frugality and industry are its attendants. Con- 
tentment and a competency are its reward. 

Of all the different employments, agriculture is one of the most 
innocent, the most agreeable, the most remunerative, and the most 
dignified. 

The honest and industrious young farmer knows the value of 
economy and simplicity of life. If he marries in his own class a 
sensible and industrious woman, his prospect of happiness and success 
is much better than it would have been had he studied a profession, 
or sought a clerkship, to wait the better part of his life before he 
could realize any return. But the farmer should be careful that 
the demon of avarice does not possess him, and lead him to break 
down his own health and that of his family by overwork from 
excessive haste to get rich. 

This lead* me to remark that our country suffers under two 
evils that have almost become national. One is extravagance, the 
other a craving for wealth. 

It seems almost peculiar to the American character to be dis- 
contented with the present, to waste our substance in folly, and 
long wistfully for some lucky stroke to place us in possession of the 



means of further indulgence and ostentation. It is to be hoped 
that the sharp teachings of adversity will correct the faults of our 
disposition, and leave us to develop prudently and use wisely the 
abundant resources with which our land is favored. 

Youth is the season of hope and enthusiasm. The future is 
painted in glowing colors. The imagination is filled with pictures 
of varied scenes of enjoyment or activity. 

One sees before him all the pleasures of the senses. 

Another, visions of wealth and power. 

Another, the pomp and circumstance of war, the honors of the 
successful soldier. 

Another is surrounded in fancy by listening senates, triumphs 
in the forum, or from the hustings gathers the plaudits of admiring 
thousands, while displaying the talents and skill with which he 
believes himself endowed. 

The voice of self-indulgence, of vanity, of ambition, is heard 
calling the eager youth, and urging him forward. But of all who 
enter life each year, full of hope and expectation, how few attain 
the object of their desires, and how many even of these are disap- 
pointed with the result. 

What are the causes of this failure and disappointment ': 

How can we guard against them ? 

I imagine they are owing mainly to the fact that the plan of 
life has not been formed with sufficient care, or with a full under- 
standing of the value of things and the requirements and possibiF 
ties of the situation. 

Pleasure is not an object worthy <>f pursuit. It is only a grat- 
ification intended to lighten our cares, and refresh us after our 
labors. He who makes it his chief aim disgraces his manhood 
and insures his future misery. 

Wealth, and power, and station, and popularity, and the ap- 
plause of the many are likewise low objects of desire, seldom 
attained, and unsatisfying to those who have them. 



8 

I would say to the young man, seek none of these things. 
What then can he do to insure his happiness ? I answer, learn 
wisdom. Know yourself a.nd the true value of things, and seek 
those objects that are within reach, and have a value sufficient to 
justify and reward their pursuit. 

As to pleasure, the moderate exercise of our faculties is a 
source of real pleasure within the reach of all. Let us open our 
eyes and ears and enjoy the beauties of nature. The green grass, 
the waving grain, the spreading trees, the sparkling waters, the 
singing birds, and the myriads of pleasing and sublime sights and 
sounds which nature presents for our entertainment, are likewise 
within the reach of all, and are infinitely superior in all the elements 
of enjoyment to the glare and glitter, and noise of artificial and 
costly pleasures. 

Then, as to the pursuit of wealth and power, the ambition for 
ownership and command. I will here tell you something which 
perhaps will surprise you. It may seem to you a paradox. Nev- 
ertheless it is true. The more you have, of material things, the 
greater your power among men, the less complete is your ownership, 
and your independence. Humility is the lesson which experience 
teaches us. A few revolving seasons reduces the domain of the 
most wealthy to the narrow space covered by his coffin. And 
while in the plentitude of wealth and power, his enjoyment is 
imaginary, his labors and cares are real. 

The most valuable of all possessions, each human being has, that 
is his own soul. That is a possession also capable of being infi- 
nitely expanded in value by its cultivation, or it may be marred 
and ruined by neglect and abuse. 

Let every young man enter upon life with the consciousness 
that he is the owner of that treasure, a treasure beyond all price, of 
which nothing but his own misconduct can deprive him, and to which 
but little if anything can be added by extraneous acquisitions. Let 



him strive to preserve and improve this treasure by exerting its best 
and noblest faculties, filling it with knowledge and wisdom, and 
preparing it for a destiny grand beyond conception, and endless as 
eternity. 

Again, the rewards of gratified vanity, whether of the soldier 
or the public man, are transient, I may say momentary. The 
breath of the summer wind is not more fleeting than the breath 
of popular favor. If fame is the only reward of the soldier or 
statesman, he is most illy paid. If beyond this he has not the 
consciousness of duty done, of toil and sacrifice in defense of the 
right, in promoting the welfare of his fellow men, his life has 
been a waste. 

These public employments are to be filled by those who are 
called to them. They should be understood to be uncertain in their 
tenure, of little value in themselves, and most deceptive to those 
who are led to surrender their time and stake their hopes and happi- 
ness upon their attainment. 

Office-seeking is not in itself, perhaps, degrading. It is possi- 
ble that a person may be a professional office-seeker and yet be 
upright, correct in his habits, true to his word, faithful to his trusts. 
But it must be admitted that the temptations which attend this mode 
of life are strong and difficult to resist. The politician whose con- 
science is weak may enter upon his career with good intentions, but 
he is too apt to close it a social and moral wreck. What then is to 
become of these public employments, so necessary to the welfare of 
the state ? Are they to be abandoned by the good men and left 
entirely to the bad ? I trust not ! Every neighborhood in the 
country is now suifering from bad legislation or bad administration. 
The tide of corruption has risen and spread over the land until its 
fetid waters have defiled even the most holy places. Reformation 
and purification must be had, if there is any virtue left among the 
people. I have no doubt there is virtue enough among the people 



10 

to accomplish these ends. It cannot be otherwise. I cannot believe 
that we have reached the stage of moral imbecility, the last stage hi 
the existence of nations. So recent and bright a beginning cannot 
have an end so sudden and disastrous. The American republic, just 
risen like a sun in its glory, warming with its effulgence the wearv 
and the worn, the oppressed and the suffering, of all lands, will 
not now vanish like a meteor and leave the pall of darkness over 
the hopes of mankind. 

The work of reform cannot be carried out without the action of 
men of ability and integrity. Such men will be found. They will 
take part in it, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of others. 

But because we have started in life to make our living in a sen- 
sible way, it does not follow that we are to abandon mental culture 
and the studies in which we have become proficient. 

The human mind is wonderful in its capacities, and there is no 
reason why the laborer, the farmer, the mechanic, the tradesman, as 
well as the professional man, should allow his faculties to become 
torpid, or should forego the enlargement of his understanding and 
the extension and proper classification of his knowledge. 

What I contend for is not the abandonment of liberal studies, 
but the enfranchisement of the student by making him independent 
in his circumstances, by demolishing the idols of vanity and folly, 
to which a perverted public taste invites him to offer incense. I 
would teach him the first lessons of true wisdom, by teaching him 
that all the mere accessories of life, are of comparatively small value, 
least of all wealth and display ; that the essential thing is the man 
himself, with his qualities and affections, surrounding himself by 
good associations in whatever sphere he may move, and unfolding 
into a being fitted to enter worthily into a higher and better exist- 
ence, and that this man may enjoy all the most precious things 
without money, and without price ; and may prove his manhood in 
he realms of literature and science, without regard to the amount 
of his means and pecuniary resources. 



11 

You leave college with the habit of study. Is it necessary to 
lose it and to leave all literary pursuits, because you have entered 
upon the labors of life? 

He who will devote one hour every day to judicious systematic- 
study, and mental improvement, cannot fail in time to become wise 
and learned. In one hour the linguist can learn and master a 
number of the root words of the language he is studying, and obtain 
the definitions of many terms before unknown to him. In one hour 
the musician can master several of the relations of musical sounds — 
the painter and sculptor can obtain some new ideas of the 
relations of color, or form and distance. In one hour the mathe- 
matician can possess himself of one or more new and important 
theorems. In one hour the student of geography may learn the 
leading features of some important division of the earth, the student 
of history may get the key-stone fact of the development of one 
nation, or learn the cause of the downfall of another. 

In fact there is scarcely a limit to the mental growth, learning 
and improvement which may be obtained by one hour's judicious 
study each day. To secure this benefit the student must avoid the 
piles of trash which litter the shelves of all libraries, and the 
ephemereal and demoralizing publications with which the press is 
teeming. Stick to your elementary works, your dictionaries, 
lexicons and encyclopedias, remembering at the same time that they 
are all imperfect. Let every thing read be read for a purpose, and 
with close attention, and under the surveillance of a sound 
judgment — and remember that we do not profit so much by what 
we read as by what we digest. 

Having thus started in life, free from complications and 
embarassments, with no moonstruck or will-of-the-wisp ambition, 
under the guidance of good principles, good feelings, good intentions, 
and force of character to resist improper pressure and bear the 
suffering and disappointment incident to humanity, the young man 



can anticipate happiness and success, a useful and honorable career, 
alike whether he be laborer or capitalist, with only this difference, 
that the simpler and more humble his avocation, the fewer the 
hindrances in the march of improvement, the more the majesty 
of the man will loom up above the surroundings, and the more 
probable that at some future day, whether in the present or the 
after life, he will be installed high in the ranks of an aristocracy, 
not of birth or office, of wealth or of fashion, but of the just and 
true and wise of all races and of all times. 

Gentlemen of the graduating class, you are now about to leave 
these halls of learning. Probably you will never again all meet 
here together. You will carry with you to your homes the best 
wishes of all connected with this excellent institution, for your 
health and welfare. I am sure you will endeavor, by your 
conduct, to prove that you have availed yourselves fully of 
the great advantages you have enjoyed, and wherever you 
may be, will preserve for your alma mater feelings of gratitude, 
affection and friendship. 






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